Slip of the Tongue
by Agent Malkere
Summary: Serenity makes an accidental confession to Mai and Tea but when they try to get her mind off it she runs into the very person they wanted her to avoid and under the most unusual circumstances. sxs oneshot
1. Slip of the Tongue

_**Slip of the Tongue **_

_Agent Malkere _

**Disclaimer: If I owned Yu-Gi-Oh, this would be an episode – not a fanfic! **

"Really, I don't understand what girls see in the creep," declared Mai as she glared at the picture on the front page of the newspaper sitting on her coffee table.

"He's a billionaire," Tea stated blandly, shrugging in agreement with Mai.

"So? He's _obsessed _with Duel Monsters and his company."

"Yeah, and he's got hideously straight hair."

"Ugh, you're right, plus that trench coat fetish of his. Have you ever seen him not wearing a trench coat outside of school?"

"Nope, and you can't forget that manic laugh of his or his notorious smirk."

"Yeah, the guy's got a heart of ice. It's perfectly color coordinated with his Blues Eyes White Dragons."

"He's got dreamy eyes…." The other two girls stopped mid conversation and turned as one to stare at Serenity.

"Come again?" asked Mai completely taken aback.

"You do realize that we were talking about _Kaiba_, don't you?" asked Tea, light blue eyes wide with surprise.

"Hellooo? Anybody home? Hey, Serenity!" Mai waved a hand in front of the unresponsive girl's face. Serenity's eyes had a dreamy, glazed look to them and her lips had, unbidden, formed into a slight, faint smile. She jerked upright as Mai passed a hand in front of her eyes again.

"Huh? What?!?" She stared at her two startled friends. "Did I miss something?"

"Sweetheart, you said that last thought of yours out loud." Mai raised an eyebrow at her.

"Wh-which one?" asked Serenity nervously, a slight blush beginning to tinge her cheeks.

"The one about him having dreamy eyes," supplied Tea resting her chin in one hand and waiting expectantly for an explanation.

"Oh!" Her eyes widened with embarrassment and Serenity covered her mouth with one hand, blushing fiercely now. Mai and Tea exchanged a look that could be best translated as: _She was having more than one thought like that?!?_ And then turned their attention back to the girl whose face had by then achieved a hue similar to that of a tomato. This time it was Tea who broke the uncomfortable silence which had descended upon the room.

"So, let's see if I've got this right – you _like_ Kaiba, as in THE Seto Kaiba, the guy who despises your brother and was fanatical about beating Yugi in a duel _for years_."

Serenity wrung her hands in her lap and avoided meeting either of her friends' gaze. Finally she looked up, biting her lip slightly.

"Um, I wouldn't put it quite like that but… um… well… I… guess so," she replied hesitantly and so quietly that both Mai and Tea had to lean forward in their seats and strain to be able to hear her. Mai covered her eyes with one hand a rather pained expression on her face,

"Girl, you have _got _to get out more!"

--

Nobody really took much notice of the young man as he wove his way through the crowd, hands shoved in his pockets. There was nothing particularly remarkable about him. He was wearing a white t-shirt, dark blue jeans, and a brown leather jacket with a high collar. A few noted that he was unusually tall for his age – he couldn't have been more than seventeen but he appeared to loom over the people around him. An even smaller number had the passing thought that there was something oddly familiar about the way that he moved, but no one recognized him – not one person. He pulled the cap on his head a little further down over his reflective wrap-around sunglasses and allowed himself a very small smile of satisfaction. This was exactly what he wanted, some time to himself to just be normal, unremarkable, instantly forgettable. It was wonderful. He had even accidentally run into Yugi and the mutt and just as he feared that his cover had been blown the mutt got up, brushed himself off, grinned, and apologized for not paying attention to where he had been going. And then he and Yugi had walked off – no yelling, no cursing, no name calling – just walked off. It was a liberating feeling to be able to walk down the street or into a store without camera flashes going off in his face. He hadn't been able to do that since he'd taken over Kaiba Corp.

He took a deep breath of the crisp spring air. This was the most relaxing thing he had done in years. Why hadn't he thought of this before? Well, before he'd always been too busy with the company and every free minute he had he spent with Mokuba but today was different. Today, Mokuba was spending the day and night at a friend's house and for the first time ever his employees were doing all of their jobs exactly the way they were supposed to be doing them and hadn't created a single scrap of extra work for him. He had been able to finish everything he had to do in _less than three hours_. This had never happened before, plus, because it was a Saturday, he had had no meetings scheduled and didn't have to be in school so he'd taken the rest of the day off on a completely out of character, spur of the moment whim, gone home, changed, and then come here.

Nobody would even ever consider that he might own clothes like the ones he was wearing. Apparently none of them ever took into consideration that, while they were certainly impressive and eye catching, voluminous billowing trench coats weren't ideal indoor wear. Sure, he loved his trench coats, but not quite to the extreme extent that people seemed to believe. Wearing the casual clothes was like putting on another personality. No one recognized him so they weren't expecting him to act like the cold hearted (for lack of a better term) bastard he was stereotyped as. He didn't need to make all of the snide comments or use his now infamous smirk because if he did a) it would give his identity away and b) he'd more than likely earn himself a black eye if he wasn't recognized first. He could say thank you to someone without the tabloids instantly buzzing with this uncharacteristic behavior. For the first time in his life people were, unwittingly, letting Seto Kaiba be just an average teenager and he was enjoying it.

He glanced up as he heard two familiar voices chattering near by. Seto silently cursed as he caught sight of Tea Gardener and Mai Valentine standing out side of a store at the far end of the street apparently waiting for someone. Despite the fact that the two probably wouldn't recognize him, Seto automatically changed directions – he wasn't about to take any chances. Because his back was now to them, Seto didn't see Mai glance up and wave at someone and then grab Tea's arm and drag her in the same direction that he was now headed. In fact, Seto, who was once more oblivious to the people around him as he enjoyed anonymity, was so wrapped up in his own thoughts that he didn't even notice the auburn haired girl running towards him and unfortunately she didn't see him either.

Seto and the oncoming girl collided with a thud which sent the two sprawling, knocking Seto's cap off and his sunglasses askew in the process. He lay on the ground for a moment in surprise and rather winded but the girl sat up immediately and began to apologize.

"Oh, I'm so sorry! I should have been paying more attention to where I was going! I didn't see you…" Her voice trailed off as he sat up, his sunglasses sliding even further down his nose and both teens' eyes widened in mutual recognition. She blushed dark red. Later, Seto decided it was the combined effect of the casual clothes, running into the one member of the geek squad that he didn't mind, and her blushing at him that made him slip and not remember to refer to her by her last name.

"Serenity?" His voice came out sounding slightly strangled and he cursed her mentally for having that effect on him.

"K-K-Kai-?" Before Serenity could finish stammering out his name, Seto clamped a hand quickly over her mouth and shook his head. Pushing his sunglasses back in place, he reached behind him and replaced his cap on his head. He gave her a meaningful look – quite a feet since she could no longer see his eyes behind his reflective lenses.

"Not today I'm not." He stood up, brushing himself off, and then offered his hand to Serenity to help her up. She hesitantly took it and he was just pulling her to her feet well Tea and Mai came to a halt next to them.

"Hi, Serenity," exclaimed Tea. "We were starting to get worried about you! You're almost never late for anything!"

"I'm sorry – Joey couldn't get the car started so I had to catch a bus!"

"No worries, girl. So, are you going to introduce us to your friend?" asked Mai, raising an eyebrow at Serenity and grinning teasingly while giving her a playful nudge in the ribs. She could still make out the faint remnants of the blush which been coloring the younger girl's face before they had arrived.

At this comment, Seto suddenly became aware that he was still standing there. If he hadn't known Serenity he should have walked off by now, but it was too late for that. In his pocket, he crossed his fingers hoping that the younger Wheeler was a better liar than the mutt.

Serenity too looked rather taken aback at Mai's question but recovered quickly.

"Tea, Mai, this is Se-" Serenity caught and corrected herself as she nearly said Seto, "Seth. Seth, these are my two friends, Mai and Tea."

"Nice to meet you," he said politely to the two girls. _Well, now I know if anything ever happens to Kaiba Corp, I have a promising future ahead of me in acting._ Serenity's friends exchanged a glance and then turned back to Seto and Serenity.

"Ren, I know we were going to have an all girls day but how about we take Seth along with us? I'm sure he'd enjoy coming to the arcade with you." Mai gave her a mischievous wink and Serenity started to blush again.

"Well, I-" Seto began to protest but Tea interrupted him.

"Oh, come on – it will be fun! Besides, Serenity has never mentioned you before and we want to find out why she's been keeping you a secret!"

Seto felt his face get slightly warm at this comment, but before he could protest further his clothes took over his vocal cords and answered for him.

"Sure, I'd love to."

Serenity gaped at him for a moment in complete and utter shock wondering if the Seto Kaiba she knew from school and her brother's dueling career had had a personality transplant or something. She wasn't the only one wondering about this – Seto was fuming internally at himself for this. Why had he agreed to go? It was practically guaranteed to blow his cover and then at least two of the people there, not including himself, would probably blow a fuse and after that the media would have a hay day.

Mai, completely unaware of the strange behavior she had just witnessed began to herd Serenity and 'Seth' down the street ahead of her. Tea trailed along next to them glancing at her wristwatch.

"Just out of curiosity, has anyone else here eaten lunch yet?" The rest of the group shook their heads. "Alright then, it's nearly twelve o'clock – why don't we grab a bite to eat before we head over to the arcade?"

"Alright."

"Sure."

Seto merely shrugged, feeling rather overwhelmed by the circumstances in general, but his apparent indifference was taken as a yes by the ringleaders of the situation.

"It's your turn to pick where we go this time, Serenity. Got any preferences?"

"Um," Serenity glanced nervously at Seto, who was walking silently next to her and brooding to himself behind his sunglasses, "How about Burger World? What do you think, Seth?"

Seto hid his grimace with a grin. _You're not Kaiba for today – you're Seth and Seth would probably not mind going to a fast food restaurant, even if Kaiba would. Good Lord, at this rate I'm going to start having split personality issues every time I put on a pair of sunglasses and a hat. I should be getting an Oscar for this… or a discount for a psychiatrist. _ "That sounds great. I've never been to Burger World before."

"What? You poor deprived person!" exclaimed Tea jokingly, giving him a light, playful punch on the arm. "You don't know what you've been missing! Right then, Burger World it is!"

The group changed course slightly and crossed the street. The girls chatted about this and that, though Mai and Tea did most of the talking. Serenity was perfectly happy to just listen, for the most part, to her friends' conversation. It was what she normally would have done, even if she hadn't been in a slight daze due to the secret knowledge that she was walking next to the one and only Seto Kaiba minus the trench coat and duel disk. She couldn't believe that Mai and Tea hadn't realized who 'Seth' really was yet. Well, she couldn't blame them really – Serenity hadn't noticed until she'd knocked off his hat and sunglasses by accident. This thought led to the other thing that she had been wondering about – _why_ was Kaiba gallivanting around the city n street clothes and _why _was he playing along as the part of Seth? It was all starting to give her a bit of a head ache.

Curiosity finally got the better of Serenity's two friends and just as they arrived at the fast food restaurant the questions started.

"So, Seth," Mai began, "why haven't we seen you around before?"

_Be polite, be polite, be polite, be polite._ "Oh, I don't go to the local high school."

"Really? Do you go to a private school then?"

"Um, you could sort of say I'm home schooled."

"Interesting, then how did you meet our dear little Serenity?"

"In the park." He improvised as he followed the girls in. Mai and Tea found an empty booth by the window and quickly sat down on one side so that Serenity and Seto had no other option than to sit next to each other. There was silence as they each gave the menu a cursory glance and then gave the waitress their orders.

"How's dance been going, Tea?" asked Serenity hoping to change the subject and avoid having Mai or Tea further interrogate 'Seth.'

"Oh, pretty well, but the end of the year performance is coming up so everyone is getting sort of stressed out. It's getting a little nerve wracking. Speaking of nerve wracking, why wasn't Joey in school on Thursday or Friday?"

Serenity sighed.

"He had a bad cold but he was over it by this morning."

"Mm," Mai nodded in agreement as she took a sip of the soda the waitress had just brought. "He called me last night to apologize and tell me that he wouldn't be able to make it to dinner with me after all."

Seto observed the drink in front of him as a thoughtful silence descended on the little group. The liquid in his glass was brown and bubbly and was, at the moment, fizzing at him. What had it been called? Root beer or something like that. He'd only ordered it because he'd heard Mokuba talking about it once with great gusto and he had figured, why not? He would probably never set foot in a fast food place again. The bubbles reminded him of the champagne that most other CEOs seemed to drink at conferences and dinner parties. For some reason they always seemed particularly fond of drinking the stuff in front of _him_. Maybe they were trying to rub in the fact that he wasn't actually _old enough_ to drink alcohol yet. He had no clue why they thought that that would bother him.

Raising his glass, Seto took a small sip of the soda and nearly choked on it. It took almost all his self control to swallow the painfully bubbly, sweet liquid and calmly set his glass back down again. Well, that had been about the same reaction he'd had to alcohol when he'd been allowed to try it at a New Years party when he was seven. People actually enjoyed drinking this stuff? It was disgusting!

Apparently his emotional mask was being affected by his casual clothes as well because Serenity glanced sideways at him and couldn't restrain a laugh.

"What is it, Seth? Haven't you had Root Beer before?" she asked still smiling. His face warmed with embarrassment.

"No," he mumbled wondering if it was really him talking. Maybe all of this was a dream and he'd wake up and find that everything was back to normal and he hadn't lost his mind. _If this isn't a dream, I may have to invest in a straightjacket for myself. _

The three girls were staring at him as if he'd just grown a second head. He shrugged and crossed his arms.

"My parents were health food fanatics."

"Oh," Tea gave him a sympathetic look, "mine, too. My mom threw a hissy fit when she found out that I had gotten a job here to help pay for my dance lessons. I mean, I wasn't even eating the food, just serving it to people and she still went nuts."

"And yet again, I am reminded of the joys of being able to live on my own." Mai leaned back and grinned at them. "You can never achieve true happiness until you have your own apartment."

This said, lunch arrived. Seto gave the cheeseburger that was set in front of him a dubious look. This was the sort of thing Mokuba enjoyed eating. Picking the thing up, he took a bite, this time prepared for any side effects which might ensue. Much to his surprise, it wasn't actually that bad. It was basically a hot sandwich on roll instead of normal bread with about twice the fat content of regular sandwich. He managed to eat about half of the burger and a few of the French fries which was more than he normally ate during any meal of the day.

Not long after, the group paid for their meal and headed out again, this time destined towards the Domino City arcade. The walk wasn't very far and there were a surprisingly small number of other people already there when they arrived. Due to the rather dark interior of the place, Seto was finally forced to remove his sunglasses and hope that the hat and clothes would be enough to keep his identity hidden. Mai and Tea didn't notice a thing. He and Serenity played a couple of battle games together at the insistence of Mai before Tea finally challenged Serenity to a game of DDR. Mai and Seto watched as the two girls took the stage and the music started. Seto's attention focused solely on Serenity, watching her lithe and graceful movements. _Ugh, stupid hormones! This is the Mutt's sister I'm thinking about here! Wheeler and graceful are contradicting terms. Even so, with her eyes lit up like that she does look kind of cu- Argh! Note to self: order a straightjacket when I get home. _

"So," Mai begin, startling Seto out of his internal battle against teenage hormones and what was becoming his split personality. "Should I be asking you what your intentions are towards my friend or should I leave that for her brother when you pick her up for your first date?"

"Wh- What?" Great gods, he was stammering! How would he ever be able to face his employees again? Maybe all he needed was a healthy dose of ominous trench coat to get himself back to normal….

Mai continued, completely unaware pf what was going through his mind.

"I mean, you and Serenity would be great together! I really don't know why she hasn't mentioned you to us before… unless you're already secretly dating." She raised an eyebrow at him and grinned.

"No! No, we're not," he corrected her hurriedly.

"Just checking." She looked thoughtful for a moment, once again watching the two figures dancing on stage. "You are single, right?"

"Yes."

"Then ask her out – she needs a boyfriend." Before Seto could respond to this, the music ended with Tea declared the victor and the two girls were bouncing towards them once more.

"Awesome!" said Mai as Tea and Serenity stopped in front of them. Seto opened his mouth as his clothes and hormones grappled for control of his larynx. The resulting comment was:

"I never knew you could dance like that, Serenity!" _I hate my life and my hormones. Thank god only one person here actually knows who I am, though I'd prefer it if none of them knew who I was. _

She blushed an endearing shade of pink.

"I took ballet lessons for a little while when I was living with my mom."

"Well, you're really good." _Okay, I'm officially a sucker for those blushes of hers – they almost have the same effect as Mokuba's puppy dog eyes. Who needs straightjackets? I think I'll just slit my wrists when I get home…. _

"Anybody else up for a game of DDR?" asked Tea eagerly. It was, after all, her favorite game in the arcade. She gave Mai a pleading look.

"Oh, alright, friendship girl – you're on!"

"Yeah! And quit calling me friendship girl!" she added as an after thought.

"You brought it on your self. If you didn't do all those friendship speeches of yours, the name never would have occurred to me."

"Well, maybe if someone actually listened to me once in a while, I wouldn't have to!" Tea snapped back good naturedly. They left, leaving Seto and Serenity alone together. The two teens glanced at each other and then quickly away again as the music for Tea and Mai's match started. Seto, who had simply given up battling his hormones for the time being, was contemplating what Mai had meant when she said that Serenity needed a boyfriend. Serenity was thinking about the compliment he had given her. They kept sneaking curious glances at each other, each wondering if the other was going to break the silence – neither did.

When Mai and Tea's match ended, with Tea once again the victor, they all trooped outside. It was starting to get late and Serenity said that she needed to be getting home.

"So, will we be seeing you again next Saturday, Seth?" Mai asked casually. Seto shrugged.

"I don't know." As he said this, Mai suddenly pulled Serenity aside and whispered something in her ear.

"What? Mai! No!" the younger girl gasped.

"Well, it was very nice to meet you, Seth." Tea gave him a bright smile. _The feeling is _not_ mutual, Gardener. _

"It nice to meet you, too, Tea." _Somebody give me a bucket – I think I'm going to throw up!_

To his right, Seto saw Mai give Serenity a shove in his direction and heard the older girl saying, "Yes, you can!"

Serenity approached him hesitantly. She gave him an awkward smile.

"Well, Seth, I really had fun today. Maybe we could do this again sometime." She paused for a moment as if summing up all of her courage and then stood on tiptoe and gave him a quick, brushing kiss on the cheek. Her face turned crimson. "See you later then, bye!" And she dashed off in the other direction. With a quick wave goodbye, the other two dashed off as well after the younger girl, Mai yelling:

"Wait! Serenity! I was going to give you a lift home – remember?!?"

Seto stood frozen in place, a vague smile on his face. Maybe having split personalities or an alter ego or whatever, wasn't so bad after all.

--

"Good job, Serenity! I can't believe you actually did that!" exclaimed Tea from the back seat of Mai's car.

"Neither can I," mumbled Serenity, whose face was still bright red. Next to her in the driver's seat, Mai grinned.

"See? I told you that there was a guy out there for you – you just didn't believe me! And Seth is one hundred times better than Kaiba any day of the week!"

Serenity had to cover her mouth to hide the widening smile on her face.

"You really think so?"

"What? Compared to that creep? There's no contest!"

"Yeah!" agreed Tea as the car stopped in front of Serenity's townhouse so that the auburn haired girl could get out.

"See you on Monday!" She waved as her friends drove off and then ran inside and laughed until she cried.

_A/N: Hehehe – I enjoyed writing that! If you're wondering if clothes can really have that much effect on your personality – yes, they can and I speak from personal experience! Anyway, I hoped you enjoyed the story and thanks for reading! Keep an eye out – I think I'm going to do a sequel or two to this! ;P_


	2. Split Personalities

_**Split Personalities **_

_Agent Malkere _

_A/N: This is going to be a series of one shots… sort of. Each chapter is a continuation of the story but also stands on its own. Does that make sense? Anyway, at last, on with the story!_

_Whistling?!?_ He couldn't _believe _he'd caught himself doing something as _clichéd _and _trite _as _whistling_! Well, then again… he was in a pretty good mood….

Seto Kaiba sat back from the desk in his room and ran his hands through his hair with a long sigh. Closing his eyes for a moment he made his best attempt to scowl, but it was useless. A small smile – not a smirk – continued to tug relentlessly at the corners of his mouth rebuffing all of the CEO's attempts to squelch it. Still, Seto was convinced that he just shouldn't be this happy nearly a _week_ after the fact, but then again it had been his first kiss – if you could define receiving a brief, fleeting brush of the lips on the cheek a first kiss that was.

Opening his eyes again, Seto glanced sideways at his open briefcase were the cap from the previous Saturday sat watching him temptingly. As much as Seto hated to admit it, it had been sort of, dare he say, fun? Especially the 'Serenity-giving-him-a-kiss-at-the-end' part. With a groan, he rubbed his forehead with one hand. He _had_ to stop _thinking _about that… er… date? Lunch and a trip to the arcade with Serenity's annoying but, in Mai's case, possibly helpfully relationship-wise friends? Seto wasn't exactly sure what to think of it as. Wait a minute! Oh great, he was daydreaming again. Argh! Seto Kaiba didn't daydream! …But apparently Seth did… and he thought of and referred to as Wheeler's younger sister by her first name.

This new side of Seto's personality – 'Seth' – was turning out to be bothersome even when he _wasn't_ wearing casual clothes and was the cause of Seto carrying the cap around in his briefcase which was certainly something he wouldn't normally do. It was also Seth that Seto blamed for his next actions. Shrinking down the document he'd been working on, Seto did several quick searches on his laptop and soon found Serenity Wheeler's email address. Still not completely aware of what he was doing or why, he began to compose an email to said girl. Seto was nearly finished his carefully worded note when he heard a curious voice behind him.

"Big brother?" The teenage CEO jumped nearly a foot in the air, one hand slamming his laptop guiltily shut. "Was that you I heard whistling?"

"Uh," Seto's startled mind took a moment to comprehend Mokuba's question and come up with a feasible answer. "No, why would I be whistling?"

Mokuba shrugged.

"I don't know, but you've seemed to be in a really good mood lately."

"Well, it wasn't me."

"Okay." Mokuba shrugged again and turned to leave the room so his older brother missed the knowing grin that was forming on the dark haired boy's face. Seto – or maybe it was Seth – went back to composing his email.

--

Bored. Incredibly bored …and confused. Yup, that was what she was, no doubt about it. With a sigh Serenity rolled onto her side and stopped staring at the ceiling of her bedroom. It had been nearly week since she'd… gone out (she wasn't certain that was the right term) with _the_ Seto Kaiba, albeit incognito. Really, it had all been very ironic considering Mai and Tea had been trying to get her mind _off_ the blue eyed CEO and then gone and unwittingly more or less set her up with him. If either of the older girls ever found out who 'Seth' had really been, they'd probably have a heart attack.

For the life of her, though, Serenity couldn't figure out why Kaiba had gone along with Mai and Tea's misinterpretation of the situation – it wasn't like him at all. Not that she was complaining! Hundreds of girls would kill to have something like last Saturday happen to them. Well, for once in her life Serenity was refusing to share and, anyway, she'd probably never hear from 'Seth' again. She could dream though.

With another sigh Serenity rolled the rest of the way off of her bed and stood up, straightening her clothes slightly as she did so. There was no point in moping around her room, she might as well get up and do something – like check her email. Yes, that was a good idea. Tea had promised to send her some pictures from her dance rehearsals and maybe they had arrived by now. Serenity scampered down the stairs and into the kitchen where the computer was kept and turned it on. The computer was fairly ancient and rather more prone to viruses than desirable but it worked and that was what counted. Logging on, the computer informed her that she had one new message. Serenity double clicked on the little envelope icon.

_Serenity, _

_I was wondering if you were busy this Saturday. Would you like to do something together, possibly? _

_Seth _

Serenity's entire face lit up as she read this and she let out what she thought was – considering the situation – an extremely restrained shout of excitement pumping one fist in the air. The next minute Joey came thundering down the stairs from his room and within seconds was panting in the kitchen doorway and wielding a baseball bat over his head.

"_Oh my god, Serenity, who tried to kill ya?!?_"

"Eep!" The startled girl let out a squeak and quickly shrank the incriminating email before her older brother could read any of its contents. "Uh, nothing happened, Joey. I just found out some… er… really exciting news. …Sorry for shouting so loudly."

"Aw, that's alright – what's so exciting that you have to go screaming like that, though?"

"Um… Tea got the role she wanted in the dance."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Okay then." Joey left, throwing her a slightly suspicious look over his shoulder as he did so. Serenity reopened the email and hit the reply button at the top of the screen. She tapped a finger against her lips gently a couple of times and then began to type.

_Seth, _

_Mai, Tea, and I were planning on spending the day at the park and Mai was going to bring a picnic lunch. Would you like to join us again? I know the others won't mind and I'd like it if you came. _

_Serenity _

She reread her brief note and clicked on 'send.' A few minutes later the computer made a bell-like sound to announce that another email had arrived for her. Yes, yes, yes! Serenity was practically bouncing up and down in her seat as she opened it.

_Serenity, _

_Picnic in the park? Sounds great – where should I meet you? _

_Seth _

YES!!! She had a date, she had a date… with Seto Kaiba!!! Albeit with two of the world's most incredibly nosy chaperones as well but Tea and Mai were her best friends after all. This was so… so… Serenity was excited beyond words. Using her new found energy to jot down another quick email, she continued to bounce in her seat ever so slightly. Good thing Joey wasn't in the room at the moment, he would have suspected something for sure. Email safely sent, Serenity grabbed the phone and then took several deep calming breaths. This was Mai she was about to talk to. Mai, who could sense possible relationships forming over a mile away in stormy weather. She needed to keep her cool to make it through this conversation.

Dialing the familiar number, Serenity pressed the receiver against her ear and waited for Mai to pick up her phone. The ringing stopped at the other end of the line.

"Hello? Mai Valentine speaking."

"Hi, Mai, it's Serenity."

"Oh, hi, Ren!"

"Um, I'm…" Serenity paused, uncertain how to start. "I'm calling about this Saturday."

"Mmhm, what about it? You can still come, right?"

"Oh, yes! I can still come. It's just that… well… Do you think you could pack enough for a fourth person for lunch?" Serenity held the phone away from her ear at arm's length.

"OH MY GOSH, GIRL!!! DID YOU ACTUALLY ASK SETH OUT?!?" Yup, Mai seemed to have psychic abilities when it came to relationships. Serenity almost laughed and would have if she hadn't been too busy being embarrassed by Mai's out burst. Her cheeks began to burn.

"Well, actually it was more of he asked me…. And, well, I was going to ask you if you'd mind packing for an extra person for our picnic on Saturday."

"_Of course_, I don't mind! Don't worry, I'll keep friendship girl at bay so you two can have plenty of alone time together." Serenity could almost hear Mai winking cheerfully at her. "I've gotta go now, or I'll be late for my job. See you 'round!"

"Bye, Mai!"

--

Seto stared at his computer screen biting the inside of his lip and willing himself _not _to do anything so uncharacteristic and demeaning as, say, grin widely while jumping up and down in glee because, honestly, not only would it terrorize the house staff for life and probably be found out about by the tabloids – more than likely he'd hurt himself in the process. He sat back in his chair and covered his eyes with one hand.

_Great gods, I'm going insane._ He peaked at his computer screen again from between two fingers with one eye and sudden a manic grin lit up his face for a brief moment. _And it's fun!_

Reaching out Seto picked up his cap from its place next to his briefcase a twirled it for a moment on the tip of one finger staring at it reflectively. The cap itself looked innocent enough. It was a dark royal blue baseball cap with no words or pictures on it to make it distinctive. That was one of the things Seto liked about the cap – it was simple but functional. On a whim, the young CEO put it on and glanced at his reflection in the mirror across the room from him. He looked absolutely ridiculous – trench coats and baseball caps just were never meant to go together.

Mokuba chose that moment to walk in to his brother's room again to ask about an Algebra problem from his homework.

"Hey, Seto, could you explain the Multiplicative Law of Equality to me? I just don't get- ACK!!! WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH MY BIG BROTHER?!?"

This time Seto literally _did_ jump a foot in the air – possibly two – and spun around in his chair to face his panicking younger sibling.

"Mokuba, what are you talking about?! It's me!"

"Oh." Mokuba calmed down somewhat, but only marginally. "Okay, then where's the guy with the gun and the camera forcing you to wear that hat?" Seto held his temples with one hand and sighed tiredly.

"We are the only two people in this room and this is my cap. I'm allowed to wear it if I want to."

"Really? You own a baseball cap?"

"Yes," Seto mumbled closing his eyes for a moment. And it was that moment that Mokuba chose to scare the living daylights out of his older brother for the third time that day.

"So, who are you meeting by the central fountain in the park on Saturday?"

Jerking upright in surprise, Seto reached out too late to slam his laptop shut and away from his younger brother's prying eyes. Mokuba had somehow managed to materialize next to him while the young CEO's eyes had been closed and had read the email from Serenity that had been open on his computer screen. Mokuba gave his brother an innocent (read as: evil, dark, and cunning) grin.

"This wouldn't happen to be a _date_, would it big brother?"

"No!" Seto snapped a little too hastily.

"Then which of your business associates wants to meet you by the fountain in the park?"

"Uh…" Seto thought quickly cursing himself when his response came out as more of a question than an answer. "Pegasus?"

"Give me a break, Seto. You refuse to talk to him most of the time and when you actually do it's by video link." The dark haired boy's grin widened until it practically bridged the gap between his ears. He began skipping around the room just out of Seto's reach and chanting in a sing-song voice, "Seto's got a da-ate! Seto's got a da-ate!"

"I have not!"

"Have too! And you know what?" he asked pausing momentarily in his skipping right in front of the still open door. "I'm gonna ask Noa to hack into your computer so we can find out who it is!" And with that Mokuba made his dash for freedom laughing gleefully as he went.

"WHAT?!? Oh no you don't! Mokuba, get back here right now! If I find that green haired twerp anywhere in my computer I will delete him from the main frame!" yelled Seto taking off after his brother and knocking over his desk chair in the process.

"Oh no you won't!" Mokuba called back cheerfully as he continued his mad dash down the hall for his bedroom.

"Oh yeah? And why wouldn't I?"

"Because he's Kaiba Corp's Chief of System Security! And he's stopped viruses from completely destroying the company's main frame three times already! Plus he can read binary!" Mokuba shouted before skidding to a halt in his own bedroom doorway, slamming and locking the door behind him. Unable to slow his momentum before it was too late Seto crashed into the door a couple of seconds later. The door fortunately for Mokuba withstood the impact and was only a little the worse for wear.

Standing up and quickly brushing himself off Seto practically ran back to his office to reinforce the anti-Noa firewall he had created for his computer.

--

Safely locked in his bedroom, Mokuba sat down in front of his already lit computer screen and grinned conspiratorially at his green haired partner in crime who was sitting in the corner of the screen and looking incredibly pleased with himself.

"So, did you have enough time, Noa?" he asked eagerly.

"Yup, I figured out how to bypass his latest firewall about a week ago but have been waiting to put it to good use so it was no problem, though next time I'm going to need longer because he'll definitely update it again after this."

"And? What's big brother up to?"

"Well, I checked his email account like you said and you had it right on the nose with the whole 'date' theory. Really, I never thought Seto had it in him…"

"Come on, tell me who it is!" Mokuba whined impatiently.

"Okay, okay!" Noa grinned. "It's Serenity Wheeler."

--

In Domino City Central Park, people strolled leisurely through the trees and across the wide stretches of grass taking no notice of the tall boy with the blue baseball cap sitting on the edge of the large stone fountain. Seto pulled up the collar of his jacket a little higher smiling slightly to himself. This whole anonymity thing was becoming somewhat addictive. Well, maybe more than _somewhat_. Extremely might be a better word.

He glanced at his watch again for the tenth time in less than a minute. There were still five minutes before Serenity was supposed to arrive. Why was he feeling so edgy? Personally, Seto was blaming it on 'Seth' but he wasn't really that concerned about it any more – even if it did feel incredibly strange – just as long as Serenity showed up on time…. Heck, he'd be happy if she just showed up period. He'd discovered that insanity didn't really concern itself much with time tables.

During the past few days Seto had been thinking a lot about insanity – at least the variety he had caught, anyway – and decided that he was okay with it so long as he didn't turn into a psycho fruit-loop like that idiot Marik. It wasn't like he was being publicly insane like Pegasus or Ishizu. No, Seto was being insane incognito which, he justified to himself, made it perfectly alright. And he hadn't started plotting ways to take over the world via dueling (or anything else for that matter), so he figured all in all this was a fairly safe form of craziness.

"Seth!" Seto's head snapped up and a brief smile scurried across his face before he could stop it as he spotted Serenity waving to him as she walked up to the fountain. She all but bounced over, a brilliant, though still a little shy, smile lighting up her face. A pair of long, stonewashed bellbottom jeans flopped over the tops of her feet as Serenity walked and clung in an esthetically pleasing way to her hips. 'Fabulously Myself' was written in swirling gold letters across the front of the dark brown t-shirt she wore and an emerald green purse was slung casually over her right shoulder. Funny, he'd never noticed that much about a girl's outfit before. Maybe it was part of his rapidly spreading insanity… or rampaging hormones – both were likely candidates for his symptoms. Seto mentally shrugged it off. At the moment, he didn't really care. He'd probably regret it later, but for now he didn't care or 'Seth' didn't anyway. His alter ego didn't seem to be bothered by a lot of things. The day Seth walked into a board of directors meeting, though, was the day Seto Kaiba jumped off the top of the KC tower.

Seto stood up and extended his elbow to Serenity. So his ideas of 'romance' (if you could really call them that) were kind of old fashioned – so what?

"So where are we meeting Mai and Tea?"

Serenity linked arms with him and they started to walk. She was bouncing slightly. Before she even had a chance to answer, they were hailed by a loud shout.

"Hey, Serenity! Seth!" Mai waved her arm at them enthusiastically one handle of a large picnic basket clutched in her right hand. The other handle was being held by Tea, who was practically having to run to keep up with her blond friend's long strides and had a brown picnic blanket tucked under one arm. Seto's first reaction to seeing the two charging cheerfully in his direction was to turn tail and run for all he was worth. Not a reaction he was particularly proud of, but the first that came to mind nonetheless. Serenity's elbow, however, kept him firmly in place.

"Hey! Sorry if we kept you waiting – Mai still hasn't got her car lock working properly yet." The two stopped a few feet away. Mai gave Seto an appraising glance and then winked at Serenity who blushed lightly. He wondered absently if insanity was possibly contagious. Maybe he'd caught it from Mai and Tea.

"No, you didn't keep us waiting. I just got here, too." Serenity smiled at her friends. "So where do you think we should we put the basket and blanket?"

"How about in the shade under those trees over there?" Seto suggested.

After the blanket was spread out to satisfaction, Mai opened the picnic basket and pulled out something that looked distinctly not like food. The thing appeared to be a flat, green plastic disk. Seto thought it looked a bit like his original duel disk system. That, or a model of a flying saucer. Maybe it had miniature Martians living in it. And maybe the baseball cap he was wearing was rotting holes in his brain. Oh well, at least it was an entertaining way to go. Mai held up the disk with a grin.

"Frisbee or food first?"

"Frisbee," Serenity and Tea answered in unison. Serenity glanced at Seto. He just shrugged and grinned as he officially gave up the last of his slipping grasp on sanity.

"Sure, sounds good to me."

Frisbee turned out to be more fun than he had expected and was made only better by the fact that he got to watch Serenity run and jump with a positively radiant smile on her face. Seto was actually pretty good at this odd game. He vaguely remembered playing it with Mokuba before they were adopted. With a flick of his wrist, he sent the plastic disk skimming through the air to Serenity. She had to jump to catch it before she sent it spinning on to Tea. Seto wondered if the smile on his face had become stuck, dooming him to a life where nobody would ever take him seriously again. He pushed the thought to the back of his mind, determined not to let thoughts of the real world interrupt his enjoyment of the day.

The Frisbee flew high into the air again as Mai tossed it to him again. Seto ran after the flying plastic disk, enjoying the light breeze brushing against his face and the warm afternoon sun. He really didn't get outside enough. He wondered if Serenity was watching him as closely as he had been watching her.

Needless to say, Seto wasn't really paying attention to where he was going – he was rather too focused on catching the wayward Frisbee. So when his feet snapped out from under him and he went pitching forward, Seto was more than a little surprised. When, in a spectacular display of flailing limbs, he fell face first into the Domino Park central fountain, shock didn't even begin to cover what was going through his mind. And that water was _cold_!!! The Frisbee landed in the fountain next to him with a splash. He sat up, up to his waist in water, and felt around on the bottom with one hand for his sunglasses which had fallen off during his fall, unlike his hat.

"Gah!" He half jumped out of his skin as something slimy brushed against his hand. Seto looked down. He never knew they had fish in this fountain. Running footsteps came to a halt beside the fountain just as Seto finally managed to retrieve his sunglasses.

"Seth, are you alright?" asked Serenity, giving him a hand out of the water. Tea leaned forward and grabbed the Frisbee as it floated by.

"That was some fall," the dancer commented riley, twirling the plastic disks on the tip of one finger. Seto stepped out of the fountain, water streaming off his now sodden clothes. A light blush stained his cheek bones and the bridge of his nose.

"Yup, a spectacular face plant like that into the fountain takes talent," agreed Mai, reaching over and stealing the Frisbee from Tea. "I vote that we eat now before this game get's any more hazardous to our health."

"I second that," muttered Seto as he tried in vainly to wring out some of the water in his shirt while he was still wearing.

Serenity, for her part, had been silently drooling ever since Seto had stood up. If she had thought he was gorgeous _dry_, well, she'd just had it proven to her that life could get even better than that. And now he was blushing! He looked… adorable. She felt a blush of her own begin to redden her ears.

Mai glanced back at the two as they walked side by side back to where the blanket had been left near the edge of the field. She noted Seth's futile attempts to wring out his shirt and then shot Serenity a conspiratorial wink.

"Ya know, hun, that would probably dry faster if you just took it off."

Seth's head snapped up and he gave her a startled deer in headlights look as the light flush that had still been highlighting his cheekbones instantly darkened to almost scarlet. Mai gave him a dazzling, helpful, and not quite innocent smile. Ah, this guy was definitely perfect for Serenity – he blushed almost as easily as she did!

An internal debate began in Seto's head while his face continued to burn with embarrassment. Soggy, clinging, waterlogged shirt on or off? Should he take Mai's advice or not? The Seth part of his mind said yes – take her advice and take it off, he'd be more comfortable anyway. The Kaiba part of his mind said no – ignore her, she doesn't know what she's talking about, save what's left of your dignity and leave it on. Seto, who had a feeling that this sort of debate was going to be becoming a more common even in the future, was torn between the two. After about thirty more seconds of debate, the Seth part won. The shirt in question was, after all, a t-shirt and therefore under Seth's jurisdiction and not Kaiba's. Besides, the Kaiba part had had way too much say in things over the years. If he had wanted to be in Kaiba mode today, he wouldn't have emailed Serenity in the first place. Oh, sweet, sweet insanity. He was sounding more like a mental case with each passing minute. Maybe this was why a lot of people in asylums always seemed so happy.

Slipping his sunglasses back on, Seto took off his baseball cap and pulled his shirt off over his head. The light breeze tickled his damp skin, raising goose bumps. A little chilly but much better than leaving on his dripping t-shirt. He wrung about a quart of water out his shirt before spreading it out on the grass to dry in the sun. Seto sat down on the one corner of the picnic blanket that was in the sun and kicked off his socks and shoes as well. He ran a hand through his hair and shook it to help the wet brown locks dry faster. His normally dead straight hair fluffed into more of a messy bed head look. Seto grinned to himself. Who cared if his hair was a mess and he was shirtless and barefoot in public? Most boys his age either didn't know what a brush _was_ (like Joey Wheeler) or used about a gallon of hair gel every morning (like whatshisname, spike head, uh… oh yeah, Tristan Taylor). As for shirtless in public, once it hit a certain temperature at least a quarter of the men and teenaged boys in Domino went around shirtless. The media didn't care about Seth – they didn't _know_ about Seth. Kaiba was the one who made headline news on a fairly regular basis.

"Wow, you're really skinny. Don't you eat?" asked Tea as she and Mai began to take various plastic containers out of the picnic basket and set them in the center of the blanket.

"Eat?" Seto asked innocently, pretending to be confused.

"Yeah, you know, food? Like French fries, hamburgers, pizza, fruit. Food?" Serenity returned playing along with him.

Seto leaned back on his elbows and stared at the branches and sky overhead of him, putting on a great show of being in deep thought. His eyebrows, which were just visible above his sunglasses, were furrowed as if he was concentrating very hard. Finally he rolled onto his hip so that he was facing Serenity, his hand propping up the side of his head. He gave her a look of pure innocence (he was related to Mokuba, after all – he'd learned the technique from the best).

"No, I don't understand. What is this 'food' of which you speak? It sounds intriguing…."

Serenity laughed and gave him a light shove in the arm. Seto grinned back at her. He never could have imagined that it would ever be so easy to loosen up like this. He'd actually made a joke that wasn't cutting or derisive or sarcastic. A heaviness that Seto had never really noticed before seemed to ease from his body. Muscles that had been tense for so many years that it had just become the norm for them to be taunt loosened. He sat up and grabbed half a cheese and lettuce sandwich from one of the many containers on the blanket. The smile that refused to leave his face widened a tad. Maybe this was what it was like to experience serenity.

"Hey, Seth, uh… I don't mean to pry, but…" Serenity trailed off, looking unsure of herself as she stared down at her half eaten sandwich in her hands.

"Mmm? What is it?"

"Well," she put the remains of her sandwich on the plate in her lap and began to fiddle with her napkin, rolling the edge back and forth between her fingers, "how did you get those scars on your back?" she asked softly. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to – I mean, I shouldn't even have really asked-" she continued in a hasty rush.

Oops – Seth had apparently forgotten about the scars when arguing the pros of shirt removal earlier. Seto started to stiffen again for a moment but stopped and made a conscious effort to relax his body again. _ You know what? Screw Gozaburo! He's already wrecked enough of my life as it is! I'm not going to let him keep messing with it now that he's dead!_ The bastard was probably rolling in his grave right now. Well, let him roll. They hook the corpse up to a generator and power Domino with his rolling for all Seto cared.

Seto held up a hand to cut off Serenity's apologetic stream of words and let Seth do the talking.

"Hey, it's alright. My parents died when I was young and the man who adopted me was… a perfectionist. Everything I did had to be up to his standards otherwise he'd…" Seto gestured vaguely with one hand, "hit me. When he died, I was made a legalized adult so that I wouldn't need to worry about someone doing that to me again." It felt good to be able to tell somebody else, other than Mokuba, what had happened even in such an over simplified manner. He didn't even care that Mai and Tea were listening in on the conversation as well.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," mumbled Serenity, a few tears glistening in her eyes.

"Don't be. He's dead – he can't hurt me any more." Seto changed the topic to something more lighthearted. "So do you three do this often?"

Nearly two hours later, the four teens were still all situated on the blanket and talking. Well, Mai, Tea, and Serenity were talking, anyway. Seto had fallen asleep about an hour ago and was peacefully napping with his head near Serenity's leg. Serenity was playing gently with his messy bangs. When she'd asked him if it was alright earlier, he'd pulled his sunglasses down his nose so that she could see his eyes and said, "Please, be my guest." It was hard to believe that the young man lying asleep on the blanket next to her and the notorious CEO of Kaiba Corp were one and the same person. If someone had told her even two weeks ago that she was going to be having a picnic lunch in the park with Seto Kaiba, she would have asked that person what they were high on. (Well, maybe she wouldn't have used quite those words, but something to that effect.)

Serenity glanced casually at her watch and then did a double take. Oh shoot! Was it really that late already?

"Uh, Mai? Tea? I've got to go."

"Don't tell us, Ren – tell your boyfriend."

"Boyfriend?" Serenity repeated. Weren't they sort of jumping to conclusions here? They'd only been on one date (if this really counted as a date). For all Serenity knew, this might be the last time she ever saw 'Seth.'

Tea and Mai exchanged a knowing look.

"Mmhm, yeah, your boyfriend," Tea nodded.

"But-"

"Trust me, Ren," Mai interrupted, "this is definitely not the last time you're going to be hearing from him – you'll probably need a restraining order to get rid of him that fast. Shame, though, that you have to wake him up. He looks so cute like that…."

Serenity rolled her eyes at the older girl and then gently shook Seto's shoulder. He roused after about a minute and then sat up, yawning widely. He rolled his shoulders which were a little stiff.

"What'd I miss?"

"I need to be getting home," Serenity explained. "My brother and I have something planned for tonight and I promised him I would get home early."

"Would you like me to give you a ride home?" The question was out of Seto's mouth before he even had time to think about it. Seto had his back to Mai and Tea and therefore missed the enthusiastic gestures of encouragement they were giving Serenity.

"Yes, thank you."

Seto pulled on his still slightly damp shirt, shoes, and socks. He paused for a moment, baseball cap in one hand. He could have sworn he was forgetting something.

"Looking for this?" asked Mai, holding out his leather jacket.

"Yeah, thanks." He'd forgotten he'd taken it off before they'd started playing Frisbee. It didn't even register in his brain that he'd just thanked Mai without any effort at all. Seto put on his baseball cap and slid on his jacket. He stood, extending a hand down to help Serenity up. "Shall we?"

Mai and Tea watched the two walk off towards the parking lot.

"They make such a cute couple," Tea stated before tilting her head back to drain the last of the lemonade out of her glass.

"Mmm," Mai nodded. "Thank god we got her off those crazy notions about Kaiba."

"Yeah, thank god," Tea agreed. "Can you imagine _Kaiba_ going on a _date_ with somebody?"

There was a heartbeat of silence as the two friends looked at each other and then they both burst out laughing.

"Oh, I wish I could see that!" Mai managed to get in between gasps. "It would just be too disastrously hilarious to miss!"

--

When Seto had offered her a ride home, she had assumed that he had meant by car. It turned up that actually hadn't _come_ by car – he'd driven to the park on a motorcycle. Serenity knew absolutely nothing about motorcycles but this one was sleek and streamline and black. It was the most thrilling ride home she'd ever had with her arms wrapped tightly around Seto's middle, her cheek pressed into his back, and the wind whipping through her hair. He'd offered her his helmet, but it had turned out to be far too big for her to be of any use.

Serenity reluctantly slid off the back of the motorbike when they stopped in her driveway. Seto turned off the engine and then walked with her up onto her front porch. They both stopped, uncertain of what should happen next. At last, Serenity broke the silence.

"Thank you for the ride home."

"You're welcome." Serenity felt her cheeks begin to flush as Seto flipped up the visor of his motorcycle helmet and grinned charmingly at her. The young CEO suddenly looked nervous in spite of himself. "Are you- uh- would you-" She bit her lip to keep herself from laughing. Seto Kaiba was stuttering? Where were the four horsemen? "Would you like to go out to dinner with me this Friday?" he finally managed to force out, staring intently at the toes of his shoes. Asking her in person was so much harder than by email. Seto glanced up at her, rubbing the thumb and index finger of his left hand together in one his few normal outward signs of stress.

Her responding smile could have lit an entire ballroom.

"I'd love to."

Her words bolstered his courage enough to allow what happened next to happen at all.

"Oh, by the way," Seto leaned forward and Serenity's heart was suddenly in danger of bursting out of her chest, "last Saturday," she could feel his breath tickling against her cheek, "you missed." And Seto closed the gap between them and kissed her on the lips. Serenity decided that, so far, this had definitely been her favorite part of today – of the entire week, really.

The two were so engrossed in their kiss that they didn't even hear the door open behind them.

"Hey, sis, you're ho- OH MY GOD! SERENITY!!!"

Fifty thousand volts of electricity wouldn't have had as much effect as Joey's yelp. Serenity fell backwards into her older brother and Seto whacked his head his head on one of the posts holding up the small overhang above the Wheeler's front door. His visor dropped back down in front of his face with a _clack_ and a few white stars burst before his eyes. No, wait, this was wrong – he was supposed to see stars _while_ he was kissing Serenity not _after_, wasn't he?

"J-Joey!" Serenity grabbed Joey's arm before he could rush back inside for his baseball bat or some other form of blunt instrument. After this he was probably going to start keeping one in the umbrella stand by the door. "Wait! I can explain!"

"No explaining necessary! This psycho was molesting you on our front porch!"

"No, Joey, he-"

"Pedophile! I'm calling the police!"

"Joey! He's my boyfriend!" Joey froze. Serenity wondered if she'd just made the situation worse.

"He's your WHA?!?"

"Boyfriend," Serenity repeated with much more calmness than she actually felt. She continued before her brother had a chance to process this information. "Joey, this is Seth. Seth, this is my older, over protective brother, Joey."

"Nice to meet you, mu-" Seto just barely caught himself in time, "Mr. Wheeler."

"Aw, call me Joey – 'Mr. Wheeler' makes me feel old," Joey grinned and then blinked in surprise. "Oh, no you don't! Nice try, Ren, but I ain't falling for that whole distract and switch topics!"

"Darn," grumbled Serenity under her breath.

"Now, since when did you have a b-" Joey choked on the word slightly, "boyfriend and exactly when were you planning on telling me about this development?!?"

"Actually," Seto cut in, flipping his visor back up and coming to Serenity's rescue, "this whole thing is still very new and we wanted to make sure that this was really a good idea before we worried you about it. Serenity was actually hoping that we could tell you night."

"You… were?" Joey asked hesitantly. Seto nodded firmly.

"See, Joey? You weren't being left out of the loop because up until today there was no loop to be in! Besides, I don't need your permission to date if I want to, but do you really think that I wouldn't tell you about something important like this?"

Joey sighed and he shoulders slumped just a tad.

"I guess not. Sorry about overreacting, sis. It's just – I worry about you, ya know?" he sighed. Serenity hugged him.

"It's alright – I know. Just don't attempt to attack my boyfriend with a baseball bat, okay?" Joey still cringed slightly at the use of the word 'boyfriend,' but nodded.

"By the way, nice ta meet ya- Seth, was it?" Joey asked, extending his hand.

"Yes," Seto shook the proffered hand. "Nice to meet you too, Joey." He turned to Serenity, who was smiling at him approvingly, and had to make a conscious effort not to wipe his hand on his pants leg. "See you on Friday, Serenity. How does six thirty sound to you?"

"It sounds great."

Serenity and Joey stood in the front door together, watching Seto driving away.

"He seems like a pretty nice guy," Joey admitted at last. He gave Serenity's shoulders another quick squeeze before he turned and went back into the house. "I'm just glad you didn't bring somebody like _Duke_ home! I guess you could have done a lot worse than this guy, Seth."

"Like Kaiba?" Serenity suggested mischievously.

"Oh, GOD, Ren! That is not even _funny_!!! Do _NOT_ joke about things like that when I'm around! Or ever! Moneybags is a heartless jerk and a bastard and couldn't care about somebody if he tried! If he showed up here I'd kick his sorry ass from here to kingdom come!"

"Whatever you say, Joey."

If Joey had been paying more attention instead of ranting about Kaiba, he would have noticed the strange smile on his little sister's face.


End file.
